


#tat* of Ultcd* island and $*otttdence f lantations. 



REPORT 



OF THE 



Jamestown Tercentennial Commission 



MADE TO THE 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



AT ITS 



JANUARY SESSION, 1906. 



PROVIDENCE: 

E. L. FREEMAN & SONS, STATE PRINTERS. 

1906. 



$Utt of Hftflfa island m& <e,vovx&tMt itautatianis. 



REPORT 



OF THE 



Jamestown Tercentennial Commission 



MADE TO THE 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



AT ITS 



JANUARY SESSION, 1906, 



PROVIDENCE: 

E. L. FREEMAN & SONS, STATE PRINTERS. 
1906. 



<c* ... 



MAh 5 19u6 
P.crO, 






REPORT 



To the Honorable the General Assembly: 

The undersigned, appointed by His Excellency the Governor, a 
" Commission to arrange for the participation of the State of Rhode 
Island in the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition" by virtue of 
a joint resolution passed April 21, 1905, and authorized thereby to 
" determine the manner in which the State of Rhode Island shall be 
represented at said exposition," and further required to "make 
recommendation to the next General Assembly as to the character 
and cost of making such representation of the State of Rhode Island 
at said exposition in such a manner as shall be in keeping with the 
dignity and honor of this State and the importance of the event to 
be commemorated," respectfully report: 

That the Congress of the United States has inaugurated an inter- 
national naval, marine, and military celebration to be held on and 
near the waters of Hampton Roads in the State of Virginia, beginning 
the 13th day of May, 1907, and ending not later than the first day 
of the following November, and that contemporaneously and in 
connection therewith an industrial and historical exposition is to be 
held on the shores of said Hampton roads by virtue of an act of the 
General Assembly of the State of Virginia, in which exposition the 
several States and Territories are invited to participate and to exhibit 
the part they have taken in the historical and material development 
of the United States. 

That the fact to be commemorated is " the birth of the American 
nation, the first permanent settlement of English speaking people on 
the American continent, made at Jamestown, Virginia, on the 



4 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

thirteenth day of May in the year 1607/' and that the object of such 
commemoration is, as expressed in the preamble of the joint resolu- 
tion of your honorable body, "that the great events of American 
history which have resulted therefrom may be accentuated to the 
future and present generations of American citizens." 

It is obvious that this purpose can be best accomplished by an 
exhibition which shall be chiefly historical in its character, and 
which shall present in a concrete form the salient events showing the 
growth of the colony and of the State from that day of small things, 
when in 1636 Roger Williams with his five companions, poor in 
this world's goods, made the first settlement in the Providence 
Plantation, until the present time when the State possesses a popula- 
tion of almost a half million of inhabitants, whose taxable wealth 
exceeds four hundred million dollars, when more than one hundred 
millions of dollars belonging to almost two hundred thousand 
depositors are held by her savings banks and on participation 
account in the trust companies within her borders, when no State in 
the Union has a territory so densely populated, and when she is 
unsurpassed by any other State in the percentage of the total 
population employed in manufacturing and in the variety and 
importance of her products. 

A brief consideration of other facts emphasizes and strengthens 
this view. In point of antiquity Rhode Island is almost coeval with 
Virginia. Less than thirty years had elapsed from the settlement 
of Jamestown, thus to be commemorated, when Roger Williams 
came to this place, and thus Rhode Island was among the earliest 
of the colonies to be settled by Englishmen and to be subjected to 
English rule. In addition to the charter granted to Virginia, charters 
had been granted prior to 1636 to the Plymouth colony and to Mary- 
land, and a few English settlers had made their way to Connecticut, 
although no charter was granted to that colony until 1662. But 
an English patent was not granted for New York until 1664, William 
Penn was not born in 1636, John Locke, the author of the Essay on 
the Human Understanding and the framer of the first constitutions 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 5 

for the Carolinas, was then a child of the age of four years, and a 
charter was not granted to Georgia for nearly a hundred years 
thereafter. 

One hundred and thirty years have now elapsed since the Declara- 
tion of Independence and the beginning of our national existence. 
But the beginnings of Rhode Island go back one hundred and forty 
years before the Declaration of Independence, thus giving to Rhode 
Island a longer period of existence as a colony under English rule 
than has yet elapsed since she became an independent State. Few 
indeed are the States whose history joins together the present and the 
past and connects the institutions of to-day with the order of a bygone 
age as does the history of this State. 

Our foundations were laid at the time when Charles I was King 
of England, and it was to this monarch that Canonicus and the 
chief Sachems of the Narragansetts in this colony soon made formal 
submission and pledged their allegiance and claimed his protection. 
The Court of Star Chamber, whose sessions Roger Williams had 
attended as a writer of shorthand, was still in existence; the Habeas 
Corpus Act did not receive the royal sanction until more than forty 
years later; the Bank of England and the British Museum were not 
in being, nor had Sir Christopher Wren yet rounded the dome of 
St. Paul's; the Pilgrim's Progress was as yet unwritten; the world 
still waited for Sir Isaac Newton to reveal the law of gravitation; and 
" Man's first disobedience and the forbidden fruit" had not yet in- 
spired the majestic imagery of Paradise Lost. Richelieu then gov- 
erned France and Le Grand Monarque had not ascended the throne; 
the Thirty Years' War was still raging, and the Peace of Westphalia, 
which for the first time recognized the principle of the balance of 
power among the Continental States, was yet to be concluded; 
Innocent X was not yet seated in the chair of St. Peter; Frederick 
the Great was not yet born, and Peter the Great was not to give his 
name to the Imperial City on the Neva for half a century; Gustavus 
Adolphus had just died, and Holland was successfully contending 
with England for the supremacy of the sea. In all the territory 



() JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

comprised within the limits of the United States there was not a 
printing office or a newspaper or a post office. One of the earliest 
laws of the colony required, under a penalty, that instruction should 
be given in the use of the bow and arrow as weapons of offence and 
defence, and the benefit of clergy was claimed and allowed in 
our courts for more than a hundred years thereafter. Nearly a 
hundred years were to elapse before the birth of George Washington, 
and more than a hundred years were to pass before Benjamin Frank- 
lin was to "wrest the lightning from heaven and the sceptre from 
tyrants." 

But it is not solely nor chiefly because of the comparative antiquity 
of its founding that an historical exhibition should be made of the 
development of Rhode Island. Her history is unique in several 
particulars. The absolute separation of church and State was here 
for the first time in history made the foundation stone of a civil 
government. It is first seen in the Civil Compact of 1637 (the 
original of which is still in existence) in these words: "We whose 
names are hereunder, desirous to inhabitt in the Towne of Providence, 
do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to 
all such orders or agreements as shall be made for publick good of 
ye body in an orderly way, by the major consent of the present 
Inhabitants, maisters of families incorporated together into a towne 
fellowship, and others whome they shall admitt unto them only in 
civill things." 

Here also is illustrated in concrete and organic form one of the 
earliest examples of a government founded upon a voluntary social 
contract. 

The same idea is seen in the Parlimentary charter granted in 1643 : 
" With full Power and Authority to rule themselves and Such others 
as shall hereafter inhabit within any Part of the said Tract of Land 
by such a form of Civil Government as by voluntary consent of all 
or the greater Part of them they shall find most suitable to their 
Estate and Condition; and for that End to make and ordain such 
Civil Laws and Constitutions, and to inflict such punishments upon 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 7 

Transgressors, and for Execution thereof so to place and displace 
officers of Justice as they or the greater part of them shall by free 
consent agree to." 

This charter limitation of the power of legislation to civil in con- 
tradistinction to religious concerns is exemplified in the Code of 
1647, adopted when the provisions of this charter first became 
effective. Thus in one section it is provided: "Forasmuch as the 
consciences of sundry men truly conscienable may scruple the giving 
or the taking of an oath, and it would be nowise suitable to the 
nature and constitution of our place who profess ourselves to be 
men of different consciences and not one willing to force another, 
to debar such as cannot do so, either from bearing office among us or 
from giving in testimony in a case depending, be it enacted by the 
authority of this present Assembly that a solemn profession or 
testimony in a court of record or before a judge of record, shall be 
accounted throughout the whole colony of as full force as an oath." 

And the solemn conclusion of that code is in these words : " These 
are the laws that concern all men, and these are the penalties for 
the transgression thereof, which by common consent are ratified and 
established throughout the whole colony; and otherwise than thus 
what is herein forbidden all men may walk as their consciences 
persuade them, every one in the name of his God. And let the Saints 
of the Most High walk in this colony without molestation, in the 
name of Jehovah their God, forever and ever." 

The sentiment emblazoned above the portals of these walls, "to 
hold forth a lively experiment that a flourishing civil state may stand 
and be best maintained with full liberty in religious concernments/ 7 
was most fully guaranteed in the charter granted by Charles II in 
1663, the original still being preserved in the possession of the State. 
That unique instrument was thus described by the late Chief Justice 
Job Durfee, in an address before the General Assembly of his day: 
" Than that charter, no greater boon was ever conferred by mother 
country on colony, since time began. No grant ever more com- 
pletely expressed the idea of a people. It at once guarantied our 



8 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

ancestors soul-liberty and granted a law-making power, limited only 
by the desire of their Anglo-Saxon minds. It gave them the choice 
of every officer, from the commander-in-chief down to the humblest 
official. It gave to the State the power of peace and war. It made 
her a sovereignty under the protection, rather than the guardianship, 
of England's sovereign; so that the moment that protection was 
withdrawn, she stood independent and alone, competent to fight her 
own battles under her own shield/' 

How ample, indeed, were the powers of self-government thus con- 
ferred by this charter is shown by a reference to the official opinions 
of the attorney general and the solicitor general given to George II 
upon certain questions of which the following was the first : " Whether 
any act passed by the General Assembly of this Colony may be 
judged valid, the Governor having entered his dissent from it at 
the time it was voted?" Their reply was to the effect that not 
even the king possessed the veto power over legislation here. The 
crown officers say in their opinion (4 R. I. Col. Rec. 461) : "In this 
charter no negative voice is given to the governor nor any power 
reserved to the Crown of approving or disapproving the laws to be 
made in this Colony." As to the question stated "whether His 
Majesty hath any power to repeal or make void the above mentioned 
act of Assembly, we humbly conceive that no provision being made 
for that purpose, the Crown hath no discretionary power of repealing 
laws made in this province." 

But only twenty-five years before this opinion was given as to 
Rhode Island, Chief Justice Holt had asserted (Salkeld's Reports, 
666) that "the laws of England do not extend to Virginia, being a 
conquered country their law is what the King pleases." 

In later days this provision as to the separation of church and 
State is in substance found in that provision of the Constitution of 
the United States which declares that "Congress shall make no 
law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free 
exercise thereof;" and in the provisions upon that subject now con- 
tained in the constitutions of every State in the Union. 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 9 

The history of Rhode Island is unique also in that the Charter of 
Charles II granted in 1663 remained in force for one hundred and 
eighty years and until the adoption of the present constitution in 
1842 , being at the time of its abrogation the oldest constitutional 
charter in the world; and it is of interest to note that by the federal 
census of 1900 there were more than 19,000 of the native born in- 
habitants of the State still living who were born when the provisions 
of that charter were still in force. 

Without dwelling upon the part which Rhode Island sustained 
in King Philip's War and the French and Indian and other wars, 
among the noteworthy acts in the history of Rhode Island under 
that charter in the revolutionary period these may be specified, 
in the words of the late Chief Justice Job Durfee: "Doubtless each 
of the Thirteen may claim to be foremost in some things; but I speak 
only of those first steps which manifested great daring, or were 
followed by great results. In what great movements, then, bearing 
this impress, was she the first? 

" She was the first to direct her officers to disregard the Stamp Act, 
and to insure them indemnity for doing so. 

" She was the first to recommend the permanent establishment of 
a Continental Congress, with a closer union among the colonies. 

"She was among the first to adopt the Articles of Confederation, 
and, it may be added, the last to abandon them. 

" She was the first to brave royalty in arms. 

"Great Britain was not then here, as at Boston, with her land 
forces in the field, but with her marine — behind her wooden walls — 
on the flood; and before the casting of the three hundred and forty- 
two chests of tea — the East India Company's property — into the 
harbor of Boston, and before the Battle of Lexington, men of New- 
port had sunk His Majesty's armed sloop 'Liberty,' and men of Provi- 
dence — after receiving and returning with effect the first shots fired 
in the Revolution — sent up the 'Gaspee' in flames. 

" She was the first to enact and declare Independence. 

"In May (May 4, 1776), preceding the declaration of the Fourth 



10 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

of July, by the Continental Congress, the General Assembly of this 
State repealed the act more effectually to secure allegiance to the 
king, and enacted an oath of allegiance to the State, and required 
that all judicial process should be in the name of the State, and no 
longer in His Majesty's name; whereby Rhode Island, from that 
moment, became, and is at this day, the oldest sovereign and inde- 
pendent State in the western world. 

"She was the first to establish a naval armament of her own; and 
here, on the waters of her own Narragansett, was discharged, from it, 
the first cannon fired in the Revolution, at any part of His Majesty's 
navy. 

"She was the first to recommend to Congress the establishment 
of a Continental Navy. The recommendation was favorably re- 
ceived, and measures were adopted to carry it into effect; and when 
that navy was constructed, she gave to it its first commodore, or 
commander-in-chief — Esek Hopkins, of North Providence. She 
furnished three captains and seven lieutenants, they being more 
than three-quarters of the commissioned officers for the four large 
ships, and probably the like proportion for the four smaller craft. 
Under this command, the first continental fleet — the germ of our 
present navy — consisting of eight sail, proceeded to New Providence, 
surprised that placfe, took the forts, made prisoners of the governor 
and other distinguished persons, and, seizing all the cannon and 
military stores found there, brought them safely into port as a hand- 
some contribution to the services of the American army. On our 
alliance with France, this armament gave place to the French Navy. 
* * * * 

"But whilst she was thus engaged in carrying war over the ocean, 
she was not behind her sisters in carrying it over the land. She 
raised two regiments at the commencement of the war — twelve 
hundred regular troops — she furnished her quota to the Continental 
line throughout the war. In addition to these, from the 16th of 
December, 1776, to the 16th of March, 1780, she kept three State 
regiments on foot, enlisted for the State or Continental service, as 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 11 

occasion might require. They were received as a part of the Con- 
tinental establishment, and one of them, at least, was in the Con- 
tinental service under Washington." 

So, too, it is the peculiar honor of Rhode Island that she gave 
to the Continental army, commanded by the great Virginian George 
Washington, the only general who served with him continuously 
for the eight years from the beginning to the end of the War of the 
Revolution, Nathanael Greene, a soldier who from the first in an 
especial degree enjoyed the confidence and the friendship, as he 
merited the respect, of the Father of his Country. 

In a letter to the President of Congress, written in March, 1777, 
Washington says of General Greene : " This gentleman is so much in 
my confidence, so intimately acquainted with my ideas, with our 
strength and our weakness, with everything respecting the army, 
that I have thought it unnecessary to particularize or prescribe any 
certain line -of duty or inquiries for him. I shall only say, from the 
rank he holds as an able and good officer, in the estimation of all 
who know him, he deserves the greatest respect, and much regard is 
due to hij opinions in the line of his profession." 

The part sustained in that war by Nathanael Greene is thus 
described in the well-considered words of Alexander Hamilton: "As 
long as the measures which conducted us safely through the first 
most critical stages of the war shall be remembered with approbation; 
as long as the enterprises of Trenton and Princeton shall be regarded 
as the dawnings of that bright day which afterwards broke forth 
with such resplendent lustre; as long as the almost magic operations 
of the remainder of that memorable winter, distinguished not more 
by these events than by the extraordinary spectacle of a powerful 
army straitened within narrow limits by the phantom of a military 
force, and never permitted to transgress those limits with impunity, 
in which skill supplied the place of means, and disposition was the 
substitute for an army; as long, I say, as these operations shall con- 
tinue to be the objects of curiosity and wonder, so long ought the 
name of Greene to be revered by a grateful country. . . . For 



12 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

high as this great man stood in the estimation of his country, the 
whole extent of his worth was little known. The situations in 
which he has appeared, though such as would have measured the 
faculties and exhausted the resources of men who might justly 
challenge the epithet of great, were yet incompetent to the full 
display of those various, rare, and exalted endowments, with which 
nature only now and then decorates a favorite, as if with intention 
to astonish mankind. ... It required a longer life, and 
still greater opportunities, to have enabled him to exhibit, in full 
day, the vast, I had almost said the enormous, powers of his mind." 

Nor is this the only bond of union between Rhode Island and 
Virginia. The Commission of George III, attested by the great 
seal of England, authorizing an inquiry as to the participants in the 
burning of His Majesty's revenue schooner " Gaspee," on June 10, 
1772, in the waters of Narragansett Bay, .still hangs upon the walls 
of this building. The royal instructions to the commissioners pro- 
vided that the offenders should be "arrested and delivered to the 
custody of the commander-in-chief of our ships in North America 
pursuant to such directions as we have thought fit to give for that 
purpose, ... in order to the said offenders being sent to Eng- 
land to be tried for that offense." 

It was the powers therein conferred which on March 12, 1773, 
caused the House of Burgesses of Virginia to pass the following- 
resolutions : 

"Be it resolved — That a Standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry 
be appointed to consist of eleven persons, to wit, the Honorable Peyton Ran- 
dolph, Esquire, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, 
Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabne} r 
Carr, Archibald Cary and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires," . . . whose business 
it shall be to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such Acts and 
Resolutions of the British Parliament or proceedings of Administration as may 
relate to or affect the British Colonies in America, and to keep up and maintain 
a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies respecting these 
important considerations and the result of such proceedings from time to time 
to lay before this House. 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 13 

"Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said committee that they do, with- 
out delay, inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on 
which was constituted a Court of Inquiry said to have been lately held in Rhode 
Island with powers to transmit persons accused of offences committed in America 
to places beyond the seas to be tried." 

The Committee of Correspondence thus formed was in due time 
succeeded by the Continental Congress, and this latter body was in 
time succeeded by the Congress of the United States.. 

Such a history is worthy of being known of all men, and it is most 
fitting that it should be exemplified on an occasion when the results 
of the settlement of this western wilderness by English speaking 
people are to be commemorated. 

It is therefore proposed to collect and exhibit by this State such 
original documents illustrative of her early history as it may be 
found practicable to exhibit for such a purpose, and to prepare 
photographic or other fac-similes of such other historical documents 
as it may be found inexpedient to remove for the purposes of such 
an exhibition. Such reproductions become, of course, the property 
of the State and may be later used for a permanent exhibition in 
the Capitol, if deemed advisable, and each such fac-simile is of real 
and permanent value in the event of the loss or destruction of its 
original. 

The archives of the State present much that is illustrative and 
much that is of interest in this regard. 

In the period preceding the Revolution there are contained several 
letters to the colony from King George II, under the royal sign- 
manual, and original letters from William Pitt and other ministers 
and officers of the crown, as the Duke of Bedford, Lord Dartmouth, 
the Duke of Newcastle, the Earl of Hillsborough, George Grenville, 
Charles Townshend, and General Amherst. 

In the Revolutionary period the State archives contain autograph 
letters from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, John Han- 
cock, Le Comte de Rochambeau, Baron Steuben, Sam Adams, John 
Adams, John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, John 
Jay, Robert Morris, Richard Henry Lee, Robert R. Livingston, 



14 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

Governor Benjamin Harrison, Charles Pinckney, Edmund Randolph, 
Henry Laurens, James Madison, James Monroe, Albert Gallatin, 
John Quincy Adams, Joseph Story and John C. Calhoun, and many 
others. 

To the possessions of the State may be added contributions from 
historical and patriotic societies and from private citizens. To 
these it is intended to add portraits of such distinguished sons of 
Rhode Island by birth or by adoption as it may be possible to obtain, 
as well as exhibitions of the different issues of colonial currency and 
other objects of real and lasting historical interest. 

Properly to care for and to exhibit these a State building is required. 

In July last a visit was made to the exposition grounds and a site 
for a building was provisionally selected, which site has been assigned 
to this State by the exposition authorities. The location comprises 
a corner lot, and the other States in the group with Rhode Island are 
New York, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. After a consultation 
in Providence with the supervising architect of the exposition, it 
has been provisionally determined that the Rhode Island State 
Building should be modelled upon the exterior lines of the State 
House at Newport, from whose ancient balcony the death of George 
II and the accession of George III were announced. There, too, 
the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed; and there for more 
than a hundred years was proclaimed the result of the election of 
governor and general officers of the State by the free electors thereof. 
While some changes are necessary in the interior of the first story 
for the purposes of a State building, yet the senate chamber and the 
hall of the house of representatives are appropriate for such an 
historical exhibition as is here briefly outlined. 

It is the desire and expectation of the exposition authorities, 
acting in conjunction with the appropriate authorities of the federal 
government, to collect at Hampton Roads the most complete exhibi- 
tion of our own and of foreign navies ever assembled at one time in 
our history. This feature is of special interest to the people of this 
State. From the earliest times the sea contributed largely to the 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 15 

wealth and the influence of this colony, until, in the words of the 
latest writer of our history, there was created "that Newport which 
throughout the three decades just preceding the Revolution sur- 
passed New York for trade and quite eclipsed Boston for culture/' 
Nor did her connection with the sea cease with the Revolution. We 
have already seen that Commodore Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island 
was the first commander of the American Navy. Oliver Hazard 
Perry's victory in the War of 1812 needs not here to be retold. 
Commodore Matthew C. Perry of Rhode Island was in command of 
the squadron which first opened Japan to the civilized world. In our 
own day cup defenders are still being successfully built at Bristol, 
and we are not without reason for believing that the latest type of 
modern battleship, the " Rhode Island," may be assigned to duty at 
Hampton Roads during a portion of the time of the exposition, 
including September 10, 1907, the anniversary of the battle of Lake 
Erie, which has already been assigned by the exposition authorities 
as the State of Rhode Island Day. It is to be hoped that it may be 
found practicable to prepare and exhibit models of some of these 
earlier and later types of naval construction. 

It should be added that provision will be made for exhibitors 
from this State, as well as for those from other States, who may de- 
sire to make industrial exhibits. 

The last Congress made an appropriation of $250,000 for the naval 
and military representation of the United States on this occasion. 

In advocating a further appropriation by congress for this purpose 
President Roosevelt in his last message speaks as follows : "I 
again heartily commend to your favorable consideration the tercen- 
tennial celebration of the settlement at Jamestown, Va. Apprecia- 
ting the desirability of this commemoration, the Congress passed an 
act March 3, 1905, authorizing in the year 1907, on and near the waters 
of Hampton Roads, in the State of Virginia, an international naval, 
marine, and military celebration in honor of this event. By the 
authority vested in me by this act I have made proclamation of 
said celebration, and have issued, in conformity with its instructions, 



16 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

invitations to all the nations of the earth to participate, by sending 
their naval vessels and such military organizations as may be prac- 
ticable. This celebration would fail of its full purpose unless it 
were enduring in its results and commensurate with the importance 
of the event to be celebrated, the event from which our nation dates 
its birth. I earnestly hope that this celebration, already endorsed 
by the Congress of the United States, and by the legislatures of 
sixteen States since the action of the Congress, will receive such 
additional aid at your hands as will make it worthy of the great 
event it is intended to celebrate, and thereby enable the Government 
of the United States to make provision for the exhibition of its own 
resources, and likewise enable our people who have undertaken the 
work of such a celebration to provide suitable and proper enter- 
tainment and instruction in the historic events of our country for all 
who may visit the exposition and to whom we have tendered our 
hospitality." 

The following communication from the exposition authorities 
indicates the action which foreign governments have hitherto 
taken: 

"Norfolk, Va., December 28, 1905. 
"George N. Kingsbury, Esq., 

"Executive Commissioner Jamestown Ter-centennial Commission, 
"Post Office Box 866, Providence, R. I. 

11 Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of your favor of the 26th, and the contents have 
been carefully noted. In reply to your query for information in reference to 
Mr. Tucker's sojourn in Europe and what he has accomplished up to this time, 
I desire to say that England has accepted the invitation extended to them by 
President Roosevelt through the State Department, and will send a representa- 
tive fleet of her navy, together with a corps representing each arm of the military 
service. It is more than probable that Field-Marshall Earl Roberts, E. C. K. G., 
etc., Great Britain's Commander-in-Chief, will be in charge of the military. 
France has also accepted the invitation extended, and will be represented by 
both her navy and army. At Berlin Mr. Tucker was received enthusiastically, 
and has not only the promise of the government officials to have their co-operation, 
but the German Emperor expressed his personal interest in the matter and 
suggested to Mr. Tucker the idea of having the Royal Yacht Club at Kiel partici- 



JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 17 

pate in the event, that other countries would participate in this aquatic sport. 
From Berlin Mr. Tucker proceeded to Vienna, where he found that according to 
an organic law of the Austrian Empire troops can not be sent away from the 
country except in times of war; hence Austria will not be represented by soldiery, 
but her navy will be in Hampton Roads .in 1907. Numbers of its yacht clubs 
will take part, following the lead of the Royal Yacht Club at Kiel. From Austria 
Mr. Tucker proceeded to Rome, where he found both the Sovereign of Italy and 
the Sovereign Head of the Catholic Church equally eager to accept the invitation 
extended by the United States Government and seconded by him. From Italy 
we will have a complete representation of the government and the Vatican will 
send some of its choicest treasures and antiques for exhibit purposes. Mr. Tucker 
will go from Italy to Paris, then to Spain, then to Portugal, thence home. 

"In reference to the Japanese participation, I desire to say that the Japanese 
minister was visited by Mr. Tucker prior to his sailing, in reference to his country's 
participation in our great celebration, and he has the matter at heart and is 
thoroughly imbued with the idea that his country should be represented in a 
proper and fitting manner. Two weeks ago, while in Washington, we visited 
the Japanese Legation, but found that the minister had sailed for Japan a few 
days prior. We asked his secretary to communicate with the minister at once, 
requesting that Admiral Togo's visit in Europe and this country be deferred 
until 1907. We have also made the same request through the State Department, 
asking them to use their best efforts in not only having Admiral Togo's visit 
deferred until 1907, but also that Field-Marshall Oyama accompany him, to- 
gether with a branch of their military service. With subsequent information 
received from prominent Japanese officials in this country we have every reason 
to believe that our request will be complied with. 

' 'I trust that this will cover the information you requested along these lines, 
and extending to you the compliments of the season, I beg to remain, 

"Yours very truly, 

"C. BROOKS JOHNSTON, 

"Chairman, Board of Governors." 

We are advised that the State of Virginia has already appropriated 
$200,000, the State of New York $150,000, and the State of Pennsyl- 
vania $100,000, therefor, and other States have made appropriations 
in lesser amounts. 

The experience of other expositions has demonstrated that Rhode 
Island has been worthily represented, and represented in a manner 



18 JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL. 

in keeping both with the importance of the event and with the 
dignity of the State, at a fraction of the expense above named, and 
these appropriations are here mentioned only as evidence of the 
interest elsewhere felt in the success of the proposed undertaking- 
Inasmuch as the exposition is not to be held until May, 1907, certain 
items of expense, such as the amount which it may be thought 
desirable to appropriate for the proper representation of the State 
at the opening of the exposition and for Rhode Island Day, wisely 
may be left to be determined by the next General Assembly. Other 
items of expense can not be determined until the building is completed 
and the exhibits are located therein, such, for instance, as the care 
and maintenance of the State building, including the care of the 
exhibit and other incidental house expenses. Then too will be better 
known the ultimate cost of freight and insurance of exhibits, and 
the cost of preparing them. The immediate need is an appropria- 
tion for a building and the incidental office and other expenses 
connected therewith, and this matter can not be determined too 
soon, inasmuch as after an appropriation has been made some 
months must elapse before working-drawings and specifications can 
be prepared and contracts awarded. It is estimated that the sum 
of $35,000 will suffice for the requirements of the present fiscal year, 
this estimate being based upon the assumption that whatever sum 
may be thought desirable by the next General Assembly to complete 
the work should be by it made available by February 1, 1907, since 
it is hoped that the proposed building will be completed by that date. 

JOHN TAGGARD BLODGETT, 
WILLIAM PAINE SHEFFIELD, Jr., 
DENNIS H. SHE AH AN. 
Providence, R. L, January 16th, 1906. 



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